Ann Brashares Author Website

Ann Brashares is the best-selling author of the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants series. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? With over 8 million books in the series sold and a movie spinoff this series is an absolute powerhouse that truly connected to a generation of girls.

Now Ann has a new book, The Here and Now, and Random House asked me to join them in recreating their site for Ann. They needed a new site that would play to the characteristics of the new book without alienating readers of the Pants books.

We started with the base design from her new book’s cover, utilizing subtly shifting shapes to show the depth and complexity of Ann’s writing. Since our target audience was teenage girls I brought in bright colors throughout the site, while keeping the rest of the layout and visual elements simple, sparse and clean. Each page has its own color scheme, adding visual excitement throughout.

The pages on the site are simple – but we still wanted to make sure they were as easy to update as possible. The videos page and books page were custom-built on the backend so that Random House just had a few fields to fill out and everything would work, even as the site scaled down for mobile devices. We simplified pages even more so that mobile users would have a pleasant and uncluttered experience.

Ann and the team at Random House loved the new, clean design and we were able to deliver a site that will exhilarate Ann’s readers for years to come.

Tom Mullen

After scouring dozens of author websites I contacted Brad – because his designs are clean and tight, and he is easy to work with. From inspecting his initial concept drafts, it was clear that selecting Brad was the right move.

Michael Herrod

I really can’t recommend Brad highly enough. He’s come through for us time after time, and always delivers outstanding work. His sites are beautiful and functional works of art. Brad has designed the websites for some of our biggest authors. You know he’ll deliver an amazing site, right on schedule.

Tim O’Brien

Dr. Robert Rosenthal

It was a pleasure to work with Brad at Apt Design. On the design front, his concepts were spot on, so we never got started on false trails. And he easily and accurately incorporated my feedback in a comfortable back-and-forth dialogue that resulted in a strong final product. I remain extremely pleased with the result.

Carol Scibelli

I chose Apt Design because Brad’s websites stood out from all the others I saw. The bonus was that besides his talent he is also a joy to work with.

James Townsend

James Townsend, Author and Co-Owner of The Human Condition

Brad’s creative insight is easily accessible through constant communication and feedback. He’s concerned about your vision, and it shows in the final product. He has a consistent devotion to making your vision a reality.

Ona Russell

As an author, I wanted something that would showcase my books, but do so by telling a kind of story. And that is exactly what Brad accomplished. The finished product is beautiful, evocative and efficient, just like a great novel.

Jeff Ingber

Brad made the process of developing my web site not only painless, but positively enjoyable. His enthusiastic, “can-do” attitude permeated every discussion we had. I would recommend him to any writer looking to develop a web site!

Rolf Boone

Brad provided very clear and understandable (for those of us who are tech challenged) directions on the process, explaining the steps he would take to build and design the site, as well as the input he wanted from me, and the training involved once the site was complete. Brad, who has a sharp eye for design, ran with it and produced a great site. He does good work.

Emma Otheguy

Brad effectively translated my half-formed ideas into a beautiful website, and he gave me lots of choices and allowed plenty of feedback. He also did a great job making the web design flexible enough to evolve with my needs.

Traci Mann

Brad is an incredible designer. My book’s website is exactly what I wanted, even though I couldn’t even begin to articulate what I wanted before talking to Brad. Not only is the website wonderful, but he finished it faster than he promised, and he was great to work with. I am so glad I hired Brad for this project. I am absolutely delighted with the results.